Thursday, September 29, 2005

Don came up with an interesting test for his weekly personality profile so I decided to take it myself and see what it said.

Here is the outcome, I am not entirely sure what it means, and find that I really don't care that much anyway, but the test was a little fun.

True Neutral48% Good, 48% Chaotic

I'mstarting a longer version of this test, and I would REALLY appreciatesome suggestions for questions from members of all alignments. Pleaseemail me with a suggestion, along with the alignment you scored on thistest. THANK YOU!! I will make it a separate test and will include tendencies, kinda like the "Long Scientific Personality Test vs. the Quick and Dirty Personality test.

Plane of Existence: The Outlands, "Plane of Concordant Opposition". Description: The plane between all other outer planes.

Not actively for or against anything. Has his or her own reasons for doing everything. Usually difficult to understand.

Will keep their word if in their best interestMay attack an unarmed foeMay use poisonMay help those in needMay work with othersIndifferent to higher authorityIndifferent to organizations

True Neutral

"Balancer"

Some neutral [people] commit themselves philosophically toneutrality. They are of the true neutral alignment as described inAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons.

A true neutral [person] sees good, evil, law, and chaos asprejudices and dangerous extremes. He advocates the middle way ofneutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.

Some true neutral [people] actively support balance in the world,and seek to avoid having any one side, law or chaos, good or evil,become too powerful over them or anyone else, and will work againstwhichever side is the most powerful. They tend to side with theunderdog in any situation, and are often opportunistic in theiractions.

True neutral is committed to the avoidance of extremes, and is non-judgemental.

Side-Note from Xan81:

Due to your Neutrality, I would really, really LOVE yourfeedback. Not that I don't want feedback from members of the otheralignments, but a True Neutral's feeback is typically NOT emotionally,morally, politically, or socially charged. Please send me an email! Ihave it set to automatically email me when someone gets this score, soI know who you are ;) True Neutrals are the classic, "I just don't givea shit" alignment, and I fully understand if you don't feel that youhave any responsability or obligation to sending an email/comment. Evenif you did, I'm sure you'd have some difficulty in deciding what tocomment about. But, I guess that depends on your tendencies :DXan

Other Alignments and Tendencies (Tendenices arewhat you would more often sway towards; esp. for Neutrals):

Monday, September 26, 2005

The failure of the Bush regime to successfully persecute prosecute this group of peaceful anti war protesters is a good sign. After the events of the last few months it seems that the clue fairy has returned to US soil.

The Right Wing fascists who have been controlling the US are finally being reveled to have feet of clay all the way to the hips.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Chuck and I have been working on the "Baraka" and have made some pretty good progress.

Right now I am finishing off the profile, then we start working on the various grinds it will take to make the knife.

We are using a very tough high carbon steel for the blade, starting with 1/4 inch stock. The blade will have a distal taper to bring the balance back towards the hilt a bit and lighten the knife overall.

The profile is still not quite finished, but will be shortly. I was excited though, so y'all get to see the work in progress.

While most people who see the blade assume that it is a "fighting knife" this is not really the case. You can of course use it as a combat blade, but what it is really designed to be is an overall survival tool, something you could use to do fairly complex tasks in the woods or desert.

By the way, that is Chuck in the pictures (say hi Chuck). We should be finished wit the initial grinds tomorrow and I will see if I can update the photos as soon as we are done.

There is something about making a useful tool by hand from scratch that is truly satisfying. If I had my 'druthers I think I would build a furnace into the hillside and smelt my own iron ore.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

I have been so busy with my latest project that I have really neglected the old blog.

For those of you who don't know, I am in western Michigan at the moment, setting up a knife making shop with a friend. My time has been eaten up with all the things involved with starting a new business.

We are calling the company "Tribal Edge Knife Works". The name reflects both the style of work (decidedly "primitive" and low tech for the most part) and the style of many of the blades we will be making.

I have always had a love for the traditional early American knives from the seventeen and eighteen hundreds and we will be reproducing several of the best of them.

We will also be making a few choice blade styles from Indonesia and Malaysia for Silat players, and of course we will be making some custom designs.

There is a pretty good salvage yard here and we have been exploring it for materials and equipment. It turned out to be a good source fore used electric motors which is a good thing as it will save a lot of money in having to buy new equipment. ($200 or more for a new 2" belt grinder or $10 to make your own). We have also found a good place to get fire brick for building a forge and tempering oven. (Yee-Ha)

We have just started making a few blades, here is a look at some unfinished work.

Starting on the left, the first knife you see is the "Zulu", it has been designed to complement a South African style of knife use I managed to learn a little about while living in Africa.

The second is called a "roach belly knife". It is a traditional early American knife used from the eastern woodlands to the Rockies. It is one of my favorite designs for a practical "working" knife.The third is an experimental design. I am looking to make a very functional "utility" knife with a three inch fixed blade (which makes it legal to carry pretty much anywhere in the US outside of New York city) and that offsets some of the problems with a small knife.

The last knife is in the style of a "military fighter".

Today I am starting work on one of my own designs. I have been wanting to make this knife for a while now and am very excited to finally put it into steel.

Here is an early conceptual drawing I did of the blade, which I named the "Baraka" (which means "blessing").

It is a somewhat radical design, but believe it or not, it is quite practical for a number of different non-fighting related tasks. But more in this later.

Every time the boycott is mentioned a set of responses comes up that is both rather consistent and miss the point entirely.

Jarad's reaction is a good example.

I'm sorry Mustaq, but the oil companies are not to blame for the rise in oil prices. Exxon Mobil isn't selling you gas for $3 a gallon because they're gougeing you - Americans are STILL paying the lowest gas prices in the entire world. You're paying so much because oil is riding around $63 a barrel, and it's unlikely to drop any time soon.

No one said that Exxon or any other oil company is "to blame" The "blame" rests equally on everyone in any industrial country (including Canada) for today's situation.

Oil companies, like all corporations are predators of opportunity and you treat them as anything else at your peril.

And yes America has very low prices for gas, though not the lowest in the world, you will find those in some of the Arab countries.

All of this misses the point.

So does this:

Until Americans face the fact that oil production peaked in America in 1971 and is probably peaking world wide right now, they will continue to be angry and confused about the price of gas. Sadly, the American economy has outsourced most of it's manufacturing, but still continues to use a quarter of the world's oil - more than half of it in Cars. The American economy appears to sustain itself by building suburbs and buying KFC in malls.

This is a bit of a distortion, and misses the point that all of the "first world" (including Canada) has outsourced way too much of what it consumes.

An oil "boycott" does nothhing to help this situation - only a drastic restructuring of the American Economy can do this. Unfortunately this probably won't be a nice easy resturcturing, but more along the lines of a drastic depression. Wal-Mart has become the world's largest company by using to Cheap Oil to truck their products all over America from China, and sell them at less than retail prices - when this system collapses they will be the first to go, and the poor will only get poorer.

No one suggested an "oil boycott", what was suggested was a corporate boycott. One of the few places that we can gain any leverage is at the pumps, and if you want your "drastic restructuring" then you need leverage.

If things are going to change you have to start somewhere. This is a place to start.

The other comments both give no place to DO anything, and tend to not notice that this is a global problem.

So people in America can continue to do nothing and they will get what they deserve, and people outside the US can continue to blame America, and also get what they deserve.

Or you can do something, vote with your money, take some power back from the corporations and do some restructuring, the choice (and the consequences) are yours.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Friday, September 02, 2005

A great many people are feeling helpless just now, with the prospect of gas prices rising beyond their ability to afford even enough to take care of basic needs.

historically, every action taken against the oil companies has been an abysmal failure. This is mostly because we, as a nation are addicted to gas and have never bothered to go to rehab.

There has been a small (but growing) action to get the attention of the oil companies in the only way they understand, through their wallets.

It was suggested some time ago that since we can't manage to go without gas even for a day, that the way to boycott gas was to pick one company and drive them down by refusing to buy their product. We all know that the oil companies fix their prices, we have seen this in the last few days as gas prices have gone up in lock step, no matter which oil company you are looking at.

So Exxon/Mobil was selected as the worst of the oil companies (having made the most profits world wide) and a boycott has been declared against all their products.

If you want to do something positive to bring oil prices down, join the boycott, tell all your friends about it, urge them to join in and to spread the word. If we can effect the profits of one company we will get their attention.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

I'm sorry to have been so quiet these last few days, but I have been caught up in other things.

The Black Belt test went well, and both candidates survived. It has been a long while since I sat on a board for one of these tests, but I still remember how to look wise and ask complicated questions.

Here are a few pictures of the test. First we have Steve Van Harn and I discussing things of great import.

Here is Lori, (on the left) who was one of the testers, looking just a little tired.

And here is the other tester, Sterling (on the right) working with Don, one of his instructors.

A good time was had by all, with a magnificent feast of Satey and Fesonjon after the test.

At the moment, Chuck and I are making knives (more on this later) in anticipation of the fall "Gathering of the Tribes" which will be held in Grand Rapids this October.

The Big Question

About Me

I am no one important. I am just a teacher of an obscure martial art that most people have never heard of.
I have however, been around for a very long time, and I have managed to survive any number of interesting situations. I am told by my peers that I am pretty good at what I do, and that I may have a few useful thoughts rolling around in my head.
I have worked in any number of "high risk" fields, such as bouncer, bodyguard, and college professor, and have managed to survive them all.
I have taught martial arts for twenty five years and practiced them for just a bit over forty years.
I love Africa, and live there off and on. I am in the States as I write this, having just returned from the better part of a year in East Africa. Africa is full of hidden treasures, as well as strife and suffering. The martial practices of Africa are just now being explored and there is much to learn.

Please take a moment to say Hello

Skype

I have put this button here so that on the off chance that I have logged into my Skype Account
my many fives of fans have a chance to contact me if they so desire (though why they would is a bit beyond me)